Nanyang County is located next to the Baihe River and is connected to Xiangyang by water. Passing Fangcheng in the northeast, Ye County can lead to Kaifeng Prefecture, and going north through Sanya Road can lead to Luoyang. It is an important transportation hub. In the Song Dynasty, the post roads to Kaifeng Prefecture were combined.

Instead of passing through Nanyang County, we take Tangzhou to Fangcheng. The important waterway is Bieshui, not Baihe. Since the Tang Dynasty, the hub to Guanzhong has been Dengzhou. Sandwiched between Tangzhou and Dengzhou

The status of Nanyang County is no longer important. Wang Xiaolie decided to reopen Sanya Road, and the status of Nanyang County is different.

Nanyang County Government Office, Wang Ruohai frowned as he looked at the official documents on the case.

Putting down the official document, Wang Ruohai said: "For this Northern Expedition, Ruzhou was really too hasty in its preparations! The official document said that the local authorities were not prepared at all. Originally, according to the mileage, campsites for the army were set up on the road to let the local authorities prepare.

Supplies. But in fact, they can’t even feed the vanguard engineering troops, let alone the army behind them!”

Wang Xiaolie read through the official documents and said: "Lushan County is located in a mountainous area with few households. It is true that we cannot prepare all the supplies in a short time. What can we do? When making plans, we should think of this instead of giving it to the local government directly.

It's enough to assign a task. In the past, when the army went out, it was always 10,000 or 20,000 people, or at most 20,000 or 30,000 people. They were not particular about the road. If you can carry it, eat more, and if you can't, eat less. This time it is different. An army of 100,000 people went out.

, and also asked them to eat well and wear well, and naturally there were many problems. If you have problems, don’t be afraid, just write them down and don’t do them again in the future.”

Wang Ruohai said: "Of course I won't do it again in the future. But what to do this time? Tens of thousands of troops passed through Lushan County, and they were obviously not prepared."

Wang Xiaolie said: "Tell them that the itinerary is fixed and cannot be changed. According to the situation in Lushan County, let them report what kind of supplies they can provide to the army. Food and grass cannot be lacking. Everything else depends on what the place has.

What's going on? The army will have a hard time there for a few days when they get there."

Wang Ruohai nodded, held the official document, and looked at it with a sullen face without speaking.

Wang Xiaolie said: "Consultant, this expedition is an unprecedented event for us. We have to learn everything. Including your plan, how to do it, where to be detailed, where to be rough, what tasks to undertake,

Whatever tasks the military has to undertake, and everything else, we must learn it bit by bit. We are not gods, and we cannot do it all at once. It is not terrible to encounter problems, as long as we learn it and will not do it again in the future. This time

It's Zhai Xing who's on his Northern Expedition, and we're helping him get reinforcements. The time is relatively not urgent, so we can take our time."

Wang Ruohai sighed: "Jie Shuai, it seems that the plan we have made is not very feasible. The good news is that the army's schedule will not be delayed, but the supplies will never arrive as scheduled. Alas.

——”

Wang Xiaolie said: "No matter what the problem is, we must write it down in detail. If there is a large army going out in the future, we can't do it again."

Wang Ruohai agreed and flipped through the official documents on the table with some annoyance.

An army of 100,000 marches hundreds of miles, and it has artillery. It is completely incomparable to the march of 10,000 or 20,000 people in the mountains in the past. At that time, the main thing was to ensure that the people were fed, but now they also have to ensure that gunpowder and cannonballs are ensured, and a large number of horses have fodder. It is difficult to

A lot.

Although Wang Xiaolie established a headquarters, he had no one to teach him and had to summarize all the knowledge by himself. How easy was it? It was the first time he organized an army movement of this scale. Most of the plans compiled by the General Staff Office could not be implemented, which made Wang Ruohai very angry.

What is the solution? It is very difficult to start everything from scratch. As long as you maintain a patient, cautious and careful work attitude, it is not easy. Wang Xiaolie did not ask too much, he just reminded them of their work attitude.

Li Yanxian came in from the outside and said to Wang Xiaolie: "Commander Jie, the vanguard has arrived at Baofeng, and the army is crossing Sanya Road. Tens of thousands of troops have stationed in Ruzhou, and the place is really overwhelmed. Should we station them elsewhere?"

Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "Where is the other place? The Xie Li Nong army on the right is gathering towards Yingchang Prefecture, preparing to attack Zhengzhou. With the cover of the right, Jiaxian County and Xiangcheng in Ruzhou have become the rear. That is far away from the front line

It is also far away and is not suitable for garrisoning. When we go north, it is best to station with the former army in Baofeng and Liang County. With Baofeng as the base and Liang County as the front, we can provide protection for Zhai Xing. If Zhai Xing captures Luoyang in the battle, we will go west

Go to the Xin'an and Mianchi areas to block the reinforcements of the Jin army from Shaanxi. If an accident happens unfortunately, we can also respond to Zhai Xing."

Li Yanxian said: "With tens of thousands of troops stationed in two counties, it is really difficult to ensure supplies. Food and grass can be transported there, but the cattle and sheep will be eaten up. Although it can be transported from other places, it is not easy.

It would be better to spread out to Jiaxian and Lushan, and the supplies would be much more convenient."

Wang Xiaolie said: "No need. The army is dispersed and it is inconvenient to fight. Now that it is winter, we can ask the nearby counties to slaughter the pigs and sheep and transport them, or even process them. There is always a way.

"

In the past, when I looked at history, I often saw hundreds of thousands of troops participating in a battle. After a single attack and defeat, the entire army collapsed. Now think about it, how is this possible? Hundreds of thousands of troops lined up, with the two wings separated by at least dozens of miles. Where is it?

Such a good influence.

When Wang Xiaolie's army set out from Nanyang, it was planned to be one soldier and three civilians. The Chinese army had five regiments of infantry, one artillery regiment, one engineering regiment, two cavalry regiments, two baggage regiments, and other miscellaneous seven regiments.

The mixed troops numbered nearly 40,000, with 120,000 attached civilians, adding up to nearly 200,000. After arriving in Ruzhou, the scope of activities became smaller, and it was decided to have one soldier and two civilians. The Chinese army plus Cao Zhiyan’s front

The army numbered nearly 60,000, and together with the 120,000 civilians, there were still about 200,000 troops.

If you add Shao Ling's army from the left and Niu Gao's from the right, this time Wang Xiaolie dispatched nearly 100,000 troops and 300,000 civilians. According to some calculations, if the civilians are also included in the army, it will be 400,000 troops. 400,000

The army is enough to shake the world.

In this era, one hundred thousand is basically the limit for an army. No matter how many people there are, the troops need to be divided, otherwise the place cannot support so many people. Not only the materials cannot support it, but also the civilians are not enough.

Historically, Yue Fei's army was about 100,000, which was basically a large army. Due to the ruins of the Central Plains in Yue Fei's Northern Expedition, the number of troops that could be supported was only this number. Wu Shu led the Jin army to fight, and it was impossible to have 100,000. His marching route was not

Support so many people.

When reading, I often think, there are 100,000 enemies. I can’t defeat 100,000 people. How about 200,000? What if there are 300,000? In fact, the number of troops cannot be calculated in this way. The number of people supported on a battlefield is basically fixed, and more

People starve themselves to death first.

When two armies are fighting, they must first compete for resources in the battlefield area. If you eat more, the enemy will eat less. If you cannot grab resources from the battlefield, you can only transport them from the rear. In this era, transporting food from the rear is very expensive.

It requires a lot of manpower. These people transporting food are extremely vulnerable to attack. If they don't pay attention to defense, the enemy will cut off the food route. Once the food route is cut off, the war will not be fought.

It was an earth-shattering thing for Wang Xiaolie to launch a hundred thousand troops in the Northern Expedition. If Luoyang cannot be captured this time, it will be a failure. Moreover, this failure will come at the expense of three years of savings from Xiangyang, Dengzhou and other ten states. In this sense

Speaking of which, you cannot fail.

With Luoyang as the center, starting from Shaanzhou in the west, Zhengzhou in the east, Mengzhou in the north, and Ruzhou in the south, it can only support so many people. Moreover, Wang Xiaolie needs to transport a large amount of supplies from Nanyang, otherwise even such an army

The scale cannot support it.

In fact, Zhai Xing's troops, Dong Xian's troops, Meng Bangxiong's troops, and Wang Xiaolie were not included in the calculation. Their battles could only be concentrated around Luoyang. A larger area would be too big for them.

Far away. Without material support, these troops cannot stay in any place for long and must go to other places for food.
Chapter completed!